Senator Joseph I.
Lieberman
Opening Statement:
Congressional Voting Representation
for Citizens of the District of Columbia
Thursday, May 23, 2002
Thank you. Senator Feingold,
Representative Norton, Congressman Regula, Congresswoman Eddie
Bernice Johnson, Mayor Williams, Council Chairman Cropp, fellow
Committee members, it’s good to have you all here this morning.
This hearing has been called to
discuss a matter that is, for 600,000 American citizens, an
ongoing injustice—and is, for the nation as a whole, a stain on
the fabric of our democracy. That is, when will we finally
extend voting representation in Congress to citizens of the
District of Columbia? This is a question that is of great
importance for our country, and the Governmental Affairs
Committee, which has oversight over municipal affairs of the
District, clearly has considerable jurisdiction over this issue.
It is almost incomprehensible that in this day
and age, ours is the only democracy in the world in which
citizens of the capital city are not represented in the national
legislature. Think of what visitors from around the world must
think of that when they come to see our beautiful landmarks, our
monuments, and our Capitol dome—proud symbols of the world’s
leading democracy—only to learn that the people who live in this
city, and see those landmarks every day, have no voice in the
national legislature. What would we do if, because of some
glitch, the residents of Boston, Nashville, Denver, Seattle, or
El Paso had no voting rights? All those cities are about the
same size as Washington, D.C.—and I know we as a nation wouldn’t
let their citizens go voiceless in the Congress.
Citizens of the District pay taxes, serve their
fellow citizens here at home, and serve and die in war, yet are
denied the opportunity to choose voting representatives in the
legislature which governs them and the rest of America. Even
though they pay taxes, they have no say about how high those
taxes are or on what priorities that money will be spent. To put
it in particularly sharp relief, this city’s people and
institutions have been the direct target of terrorists—but as we
in the Congress debate and vote on policies to protect our
country, citizens of the District have no one who can cast a
vote.
I think that in 2002, we should all understand
that the vote is a civic entitlement of every American citizen.
It is democracy’s most essential right, our most useful tool.
The citizens who live in our nation’s capital deserve more than
a non-voting delegate in the House. Notwithstanding the
strong service of the Honorable Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes
Norton, who is with us today, non-voting representation isn’t
good enough. While Ms. Norton may vote in committees, she cannot
vote on the House floor.
I am proud to be the chief Senate sponsor of the
No Taxation Without Representation Act here in the
Senate, which Congresswoman Norton has introduced in the
House. I am delighted that Sen. Feingold, who is also an
original sponsor of this legislation, is with us today. Its
name is taken from our own revolution because our forebearers
went to war rather than pay taxes without being represented.
The citizens of our capital city believe in the principles the
nation’s revolutionary heroes established as a result of our own
revolution.
Despite the bill’s title, No
Taxation Without Representation, the people of the District
seek voting representation, not exemption from taxes. The bill
states that DC residents shall have full voting representaion in
the Congress. The tax provision is in the bill for ironic
effect to remind us of the American principle that gave birth to
the nation – that no woman or man should be required to pay
taxes to a government until represented by a vote on what that
government does or requires. No other tax paying
Americans are required to pay taxes without representation in
the Congress.
I don’t believe in governing by polls, but polls
can be revealing. A recent national poll shows that a majority
of Americans believe that D.C. residents already have
Congressional voting rights. When informed that they do not,
80 percent say that D.C. residents should have full
representation.
In righting this wrong, we won’t
only be following the will of the American people. We will be
following the will of history. When they placed our Capital,
which was not yet established in their day, under the
jurisdiction of the Congress, the framers of our Constitution in
effect placed with Congress the solemn responsibility of
assuring that the rights of D.C. citizens would be protected in
the future, just as it is our responsibility to protect the
rights of all citizens throughout this great country. Congress
has failed to meet this obligation for more than 200 years—and
I, for one, am not prepared to make D.C. citizens wait another
200.
In the words of this city’s namesake, our first
President, “Precedents are dangerous things; let the reins of
government then be braced and held with a steady hand, and every
violation of the Constitution be reprehended: If defective let
it be amended, but not suffered to be trampled upon whilst it
has an existence.”
The people of D.C. have suffered this
Constitutional defect for far too long. Let’s reprehend it and
amend it together.
I look forward to hearing from our panel of
witnesses today. |